(Left) White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt (REUTERS). (Right) CNN reporter and anchor Kaitlan Collins (via YouTubeScreengrab)
CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday delivered a rapid-fire rebuttal after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed her network has an ulterior motive in its reporting.
The exchange between Collins and Leavitt kicked off during a White House press conference updating the media on U.S. progress in Iran. As reporters noted, the conflict has already resulted in the deaths of 6 members of the U.S. military.
At an earlier press scrum Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth dragged the U.S. media for seeking only to diminish the standing of Trump by reporting on the deaths of service members.
“When a few drones get through or tragic things happen its front page news. I get it. The press only wants to make the president look bad. But try for once to report the reality,” demanded Hegseth.
That was a statement that Collins carried back to Leavitt later on Wednesday.
“You just mentioned the president is going to attend the dignified transfer for these families. Given what secretary Hegseth said this morning, is it the position of this administration that the press should not prominently cover the deaths of U.S. service members?” Collins asked.
“No, it's the position of this administration that the press in this room and the press across the country should accurately report on the success of operation epic fury and the damage it is doing to the rogue Iranian regime that has threatened the lives of every single American in this room,” answered Leavitt. “If the Iranian regime had their choice, they would kill every single person in this room. And so we can all be very grateful that we have an administration and that we have men and women in our armed forces who are willing to sacrifice their own lives for the rest of us in this room, and for every American across the country and for every troop that is based in the middle east.”
“Hegseth was complaining that it was front page news, about these six service-members who were killed,” Collins corrected.
“That's not what the secretary said Kaitlan, and that's not what the secretary meant and you know it. You know you're being disingenuous,” Leavitt said. “We've never had a secretary of defense who cares more.”
“He said ‘when a few drones get through or tragic things happen its front-page news. I get it. The press only wants to make the president look bad,’” Collins recited for Leavitt. “As you know, we cover the death of service-members under every president.”
“The press does only want to make the president look bad,” Leavitt insisted. “That's a fact. Especially, you know, especially CNN and the secretary of defense cares deeply about our warfighters and our men and women in uniform he travels all across this country to meet with them, to connect with them. And your network has hardly ever probably reported on that. … And I just told you that the president of the United States will be attending their dignified transfer. So please — so please —”
“But if we only cover him attending their dignified transfer, that’s … showcasing,” Collins said amid cross-talk, adding that covering both the good and bad was the same process the press used to cover former President Joe Biden and other presidents.
“As you should Kaitlan, but you and your network know that you take every single thing this administration says and tries to use it to make the president look bad. That is an objective fact,” said Leavitt.
“I don’t think covering troop deaths is trying to make the president look bad,” Collins said.
“If you're trying to argue right now that CNN’s overwhelming coverage is not negative of President Donald Trump, I think the American people would tend to agree and your ratings would tend to disagree with that,” snapped Leavitt, ignoring that polls for Trump are at their own record lows at this point in his administration.
Collins later took the opportunity to clarify her argument for her fellow CNN anchors.
“Obviously reporting on troops deaths is not an attempt to make the U.s president look bad. It is something that happens under every U.S. president … not only President Trump but also under president Biden, during the withdrawal of Afghanistan. When those 13 service members were killed during the bombing at Abbey Gate, we reported extensively on that. ... And, also. when President Obama and President Bush and dating back to their predecessors were also in office,” Collins told anchors Boris Sanchez and Brianna Keilar.
“The reason this is covered is obviously because these are the troops who are making the greatest sacrifice that anyone can make, and it's important to cover their deaths and to remember them and to talk about why they were killed in action,” Collins added. “ … It's an important part of this, and also a costly reminder of why there is such extensive coverage over what's happening right now in the middle east, and why there are so many questions about what the president's goals are, what his exit plan in Iran is, and what he wants to see come next year.”